RESTORED Week 11 - Practicing His Forgiveness

Watch the Video for Week 11: “Practicing His Forgiveness.”

Scriptures Mentioned Today

• Matthew 6:9-15
• Luke 17:3-5
• Matthew 18:21-35
• 1 Peter 2:21-23

Your Notes from the Teaching

The following is the account given by Corrie Ten Boom of her struggle to forgive one of her former concentration camp guards as he approached her following a message she gave about...forgiveness. “It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were! Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent. Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message,äulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!” And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women? But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze. “You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me. “But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Fräulein” –again the hand came out– “will you forgive me?” And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking? It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do. For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that. And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. “Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.” And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. “I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!” For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.

As we learned this week, forgiveness is not something we can force our heart to do, but it is a decision we must make. We simply do not have the option of choosing unforgiveness while enjoying the benefits of God’s forgiveness. But what about when the choice to forgive feels lifeless and, dare we say it, fake? We know it is the right, Christian thing to do, but our heart is just not in it as we want it to. This makes Jesus’ warning to the Unmerciful Servant feel even more impossible:

“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35)

We ask: How can I make my heart do something it does not want to do?

The really Good News is — we can’t, but the same God who made us into New Creations in Christ can! This is why the disciples’ response to Jesus’ demand of forgiveness was, Lord, increase our faith. Yes, we not only need His help in overcoming our own sins, but also in forgiving the sins of others. It begins with an act of our will: I choose to forgive_____. Then God begins the supernatural work that only He can do:

It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

Repentance for unforgiveness is like everything else — it begins with a turning of our heart away from what is wrong, and toward Christ. Once we are on that path, it is truly just a matter of time until our heart follows, and we feel compassion for the one who wronged us.

Compassion?!? Yes. Like every other miracle of the heart, what seems impossible without God is perfectly possible with and through him. Here is where God can and will bring your heart, if you allow him:

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Only Jesus could have compassion and understanding for those who were crucifying him! And only Christ in you can work the miracle of forgiving from the heart those who have hurt you deeply. Will you allow Him to work this miracle by placing your faith in Him to do what you cannot? Forgive from the heart — if He can, you can, too.